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Power out at Castle Rood.

The power just went out at Castle Rood. That means early bed time and me wishing my iPhone had more than 1/2 charge. Funny to hear my kids who have grown up in Suburbia and never really had to deal with power outages freak out. They are now all 3 in the same room going to sleep with one flashlight to share.

This picture is what I see with my eyes open.

It's been a long week

This last week I didn't feel much inspiration to write.  I feel like I'm in a bit of a holding pattern this month just trying to get everything put together so that I can pass through my oral defense and be done with all my school projects.  Two weeks from tomorrow is when I'm scheduled for it.   I'm still working with an editor to get everything buttoned up but the process is taking a while.  It would be an understatement to say that I was a "little anxious"

On a fun note we went to a wedding for two of my former youth staff on Saturday night.  Probably in my top 5 for all time wedding fun times.  They had an 80's cover band play at the reception and they were incredible.

Going to the state fair today.  Looking forward to it.  Last year Kaije announced that "It was the Worst day of his life"  as we walked to the car at the end of the day.  This year it's not hot though and we have a better idea of what we are getting ourselves into.

Switchfoot, Soren and Super Solution

Today was a good day.  Actually it was a great day.  It started out a bit off as Anneliese was awake and crying last night for several hours but after I got over my initial tired grumpiness things went pretty well.  I had lunch with some friends who used to work at the church and it was great to see them again.  Had a steller meeting with my dissertation project advisor today and it looks like we are moving ahead really well to get everything buttoned up this month.  Tonight Soren and I went to a Switchfoot concert which was really fun.  For Soren it was cool because it was both his first big concert and also a band that he knows really well.  We have listened to a ton of Switchfoot over the years and he has an ipod that I loaded up with every album before two big road trips we've been on.  It was fun to watch him smile.

Not much to say

Today I had a great red ink moment. I've been working with an editor to get parts of my dissertation in good shape.  She did a great job giving me some changes to make on my Bibliography but it was also a ton of red ink.  Took me back to growing up with an amazing mom who graded all my homework with red ink.  I felt a little insecure today and probably will until I turn the final final copy of my work in on Wednesday morning.  Until then I could use some prayer.

Tall Skini Kiwis, Smart Christians, Rhett and me

I had a great time at the Blogworld expo in Las Vegas this weekend. As usual most of the conference I attend are less exciting for the content and more useful for the relationships.  I had the opportunity to tag along with Rhett and enjoyed getting to know some new people.  Probably one of the best times of that was an evening where we shared a booth with Dr. Andrew Jackson and with Andrew Jones.  What I appreciated most about that time was the conversation about some history of Fuller Theological Seminary and specifically about the School of World Missions and some of the professors who have taught there.   I am a sucker for 20th century history so I was intrigued to hear about some of the controversy and thoughts that came from them.   Another part of the conversation led towards the conference itself and the great cross polination of having the GodBlog event with the BlogWorld expo event.  There is some talk about changing things up for next year and I hope that they don't lose this great missional piece that is foundational to the usfulness of this conference.   I guess I can probably just say that if they unlink and try to do something else I'm not sure if I will go next year. 

I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked talking to people at the booths in the convention hall.  Most of them were aimed at providing tools to drive more readers to your blog.  I need more readers so I could have used that.

Now I'm home. I outlined chapters for two book projects today and am going to start fleshing them out this week.  I am at a good place in life where I can write most mornings for at least an hour at Starbucks after I drop the boys off at school.

Jesus is a Friend of Mine.

This was too good not to post. If you want to know what we do in the office in the afternoons. Here it is.

Dear August

Dear August I don't miss you.  Yes you were hot but I got tired of you pretty quick.  September is just so much cooler and seems to have a lot going on.  I'm sorry but I'm just more excited about my relationship with month #9. 

Penultimate Draft

I just posted the Penultimate draft of my doctoral dissertation to my adviser.  I think Penultimate is a funny word.  It literally means "Just before the final one" which in this case means I post it, they give me suggestions, feedback and changes, I make the changes and then the "final" draft is posted.  What is a little strange about my project though is that part of it is a website resource called RelevantPew which is updated many times a day.  So even though the draft of the "written" work is in the website work continues. 

But, at least it is a day to celebrate.  One big step closer to graduation in December.

A spike in productivity

Three years ago when I started my D.Min program I found that the most productive time for me was after 8pm at night usually sitting in my office listening to ColdPlay and writing.  I rediscovered this last night as I edited both my dissertation as well as RelevantPew  my new website aimed at providing resources for Churches trying to reach out to the 20-something generation.   

Probably helps that I have a hard deadline of September 1st to turn in my final draft of the project.  But at the same hand I'm also at a stage where the final kinks have been worked out and we're moving ahead with content and with a renewed sense of purpose. 

I would love to have some more writers on the website so let me know if this 20-something ministry thing is interesting to you.

A Ahh Haa moment

I don't usually have moments where I realize that I am incredibly dumb.  Today though I had one such moment.  I was driving home from lunch with several of my staff guys. We are driving along a street and needed to make a left to head back to church.  I mentioned to Rhett that he needed to take a right on Golf street that it was right by the Golf course.  At that moment I realized that the name of the street had significance.  I have lived in this neighborhood for one and a half years and live right by the golf course.  But only today did I realize that wasn't a french sounding street but was in fact just Golf.  I think it might have been the southern accent that screwed me up or it might just have been that I'm dumb. 

Anyways it was a funny moment.